Pam, Tteok and World’s Largest Department Store

1400 hrs
27th August 2012, Monday
HHI Office, Ulsan.

HHI engineers sitting around us have just departed for their weekly meeting with BP. We were not invited for which we are immensely grateful. Nothing can get more boring than a meeting involving Koreans and Britishers. It takes ages for each party to put their point across and it gets irritating and quite soporific. So I am happy to sit at my desk sipping at the vending machine coffee and tell you about our splendid weekend.

On Friday night we (me, Umang, Chintan, Sashi & Amit) had a small gathering at Chintan’s (HHI colleague living in our apartment building) house. A grand feast was prepared which was consumed in the following order – Khandvi (or patudi) , Batata Vada , rice, dal and cakes. We washed all of this down with coke, cider, beer and whisky. After dinner we sat down and watched a classic Hindi comedy – Chupke Chupke.

Saturday morning at around 1030 am we got into Chintan’s car, set the Korean GPS (Gini) to guide us to Haeundae Beach (in Busan) and drove off. Ten minutes later our car gave up. We got off the main road and entered a side road looking for a garage. Luckily there was one just 100 meters inside. The mechanic told us that there was a problem with the clutch. It took around an hour to get the car fixed. We were still around 65km from our destination. We bought some sweet chestnuts (pam) from a roadside vendor at the next traffic signal and got onto the Busan-Ulsan expressway (No 65). After an hour or so we reached Korea’s most popular beach – Haeundae Beach. We took a stroll along the beach under the scorching afternoon sun and admired among various things – the sheer number of beach umbrellas (this beach actually holds the world record), the white sand, the bikini-clad crowd and the sexy female lifeguards. With great difficulty we dragged Umang off the beach and had lunch at an Indian restaurant (Namaste) nearby.

After this we went to the World’s Largest Department Store – Shinsegae at Centum City (Busan). We had planned to meet an old colleague & friend of ours (Jainendra) at this place. We met him and his wife Neha and talked over coffee at Au Bon Pain. It was good to catch up with him after almost 15 months.

After this we drove to Taejongdae Resort Park. We reached there around sunset. The internal tram service was closed by the time we reached the ticket counter; so we decided to walk. We walked down (literally) to a pebble beach for a serene view of the ocean. After it grew dark we climbed the 50 or so steep rock steps up to the main road; and walked another kilometer uphill to reach the car park. From here we drove directly back home. At home we had dinner and watched Bourne Identity.

Sunday as usual started on a lazy note. In the evening we went to a local attraction in Ulsan – Daewangam Park. It was nice spot to relax – windy, great views of Ulsan and the sea and lots of material for photography. The highlight of this visit was that a Korean female (probably drunk) flirted with Umang. From here we went for dinner to Hotel Good Morning. After dinner we went for a game of bowling at Hyundai Arts Center. I scored 145 – not too bad given the fact that my fingers didn’t fit properly in any of the balls.

As I finish writing this entry: Umang is busy planning for our long holiday (Chuseok) in September, Sashi is apparently getting bored and I am still relishing the aftertaste of Korean Rice Cakes (Tteok) which were distributed in the office a while back.

1530 hrs
27th August 2012, Monday
HHI Office, Ulsan.

Photos are on my FB Page.

From Singapore to Ulsan

1600 hrs

14^th August 2012, Tuesday

HHI Office, Ulsan.

After an extremely tiring and circuitous journey we finally made it to Ulsan yesterday evening at around 6:30pm. Our journey was smooth till Seoul – we landed at Incheon Airport on time (around 7:30am), sailed through immigration and easily made our way to Gimpo Domestic Airport to catch our next flight. This is where the problem started.

We found out from the Korean Air ground staff that Ulsan airport was probably closed due to adverse weather and our flight at 12:50pm was put on “HOLD”. They told us to come at 1140am to check if the weather had improved for the flight to go ahead. We started brainstorming alternate ways of reaching our destination. Suggestions ranging from a 6-hour road trip to taking the KTX (bullet train) were thrown into the discussion. In the mean time we also tried out Starbucks Korea – we needed the caffeine. As we waited we noticed that an Asiana Airlines flight to Ulsan had taken off- an indication that the weather had improved in Ulsan? The display board also indicated sunny weather at Ulsan Airport. Hope!

At 11:35am we approached the Korean Air staff again. This time the news was positive and we were told to check-in our baggage and get our boarding passes. So we and our 70 kg luggage stood in line to check-in. At this point I would like to describe an interesting aspect of Korean Air Check-in procedure. Right behind the walls of the check-in counters are some baggage scanners. The staff doesn’t give you your boarding passes until your luggage is accepted by the airport security monitoring these scanners. A few of us were called inside this room to open our bags and display the contents which the security personnel felt suspicious. After this we proceeded through the security check to the departure gate. We then boarded the flight. The flight left the gate on time and moved towards the runway to takeoff. We were all smiling at our good fate. A couple of minutes later the flight stopped a few meters from the runway. An announcement in Korean from the flight captain and a loud collective sigh from the Korean contingent of the passengers was enough for us to interpret that we were not going to Ulsan (and obviously there was an English announcement after that). We got off the plane and took a bus to the arrival centre, collected our bags from the belts and made our way to the Korean Air help desk yet again. It was 1:35pm.

One of the Korean Air employees suggested a solution: fly to Busan and subsequently take a bus or taxi to Ulsan. We all agreed that this was a good idea. We then called Singapore and informed them the same. We went through the same process of checking in and security checks and made it to the 3pm flight to Busan. This time there was no delay and the flight took off on time. We were exhausted and took a small nap on the flight, but the journey wasn’t over yet.

By the time we exited Busan Airport it was 4:30pm. It was dark and cloudy, but luckily it wasn’t raining. The information counter recommended us to take jumbo taxis to accommodate all of us and our bags. We negotiated two SUV taxis to take us directly to the apartment in Ulsan. The drivers needed the full address of the apartment in Korean for entering it into the GPS. So we called the apartment office and found this out. What followed was a 2 hour drive to Ulsan through Busan, its suburbs and its traffic. At the apartment we settled in pretty swiftly, thanks to the help from KBR veterans already living there and the Apartment Manager Kim.

This morning we woke up early and made it to the office by 8am. It has been a rather sluggish day – we are still trying to tune ourselves to the office culture, get our computers in shape, waiting to get network connections for our laptops and struggling to stay awake. But I am sure everything will be back to normal tomorrow.

Countdown: 94 days to go.

1620hrs

HHI Office, Ulsan

Deepak Pitta